Fluid cooling devices as part of compact hydraulic assemblies or as a functional unit for a hydraulic working circuit are fundamentally known. They generally include a cooling device having a radiator with a fan blower and a storage tank attached to it for a circulating fluid. Such fluid cooling devices are used in both stationary and mobile applications in motor vehicles, in particular commercial vehicles or heavy machinery, in which additional hydraulic circuits can be temporarily used.
DE 103 28 177 A1 describes a fluid cooling device as a modular structural unit with a drive motor that drives a fan blower and a pressurized fluid pump. A fluid (hydraulic oil) is conveyed out of a storage tank into a hydraulic working circuit with at least one consumer. The pressurized fluid is heated in the hydraulic working circuit in the operation of the hydraulic working circuit and is cooled again via a cooling device before it travels again into the storage tank. The storage tank generally comprises the fan blower or fan impeller in the manner of a flow guidance apparatus or in the form of a NACA ring. As a result, an improved blower flow and a damping action of operating noise of the fan blower are effected. Moreover, the mechanical measures reduce the number of components and the installation effort for this fluid cooling device.
WO 98/42986A1 describes a fluid cooling device that forms a compact structural unit including a motor that drives a fan impeller and a fluid pump. In the hydraulic working circuit, the fluid is heated by flow losses and adiabatic processes and is routed to a heat exchanger. The fluid is returned again from the fluid cooling device to the oil tank. The oil tank is made trough-shaped with walls that partially reshape the motor and the fluid pump. The illustrated fluid cooling device constitutes a compact design that manages without pipe connections so that the structural unit of a filter, a pump unit and a cooling unit can be connected in a space-saving manner to an oil tank without further piping.
However, the fluid cooling devices described above only by way of example and readily available on the market are special solutions that have been developed and adapted more or less specifically for certain installation situations on site. They do not allow, for example, a different spatial arrangement, for instance as a turning assembly. Their concept, the type and arrangements, especially of fluid ports and filling openings or fill-level indicators, define a fixed installation situation in their mechanical environment that in this respect cannot be changed.